Elevator system.



PATENTED DEC. 12, 1905.

G. A. LE PEVRE. ELEVATOR SYSTEM. APPLIdATION FILED NOV. 11, 1904'.

INFENTOR.

WITNESSES.-

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. ELEVATOR SYSTEM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 12, 1905.

Application filed November 17,1904- Serial No. 233,097.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that LGEORGE A. LE Fnvnn, of Orangeburg, in.the county of Rockland and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Elevator System, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to improvements in elevator systems; and the object of my invention is to produce a simple and inexpensive guide-rail for the elevator-car, which is especially constructed to enable a safety or other brake to get a firm grip on several surfaces of the said rail.

In the drawings I have shown the rail in connection with a brake and elevator system in order that the invention may be clearly understood, and the elevator system, as described, is of the pneumatic kind.

With these ends in view my invention consists of certain features of construction and combinations of parts, which will be hereinafter described and claimed.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar letters and figures of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the views.

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view, partly in section, of the system as a whole. Fig. 2 is a detail sectional view of the brake. Fig. 3 is a detail vertical section of the controllervalve and its connections. Fig. 4 is a detail of the valve, showing particularly the exhaust; and Fig. 5 is a diagrammatic view showing the means for stopping the car at the limit of its movement up or down the well.

The car 10 can be of any approved construction and can have any usual hoisting and lowering mechanism. It is provided with a controller-lever 11, which is connected to the controller-valve 12, (see Fig. 3,) and the latter is contained in a cylindrical casing 13. valve 12 has a port 14, leading diametrically across it, and branch ports 15, leading from the central port 14 to the periphery of the Valve. The casing 13 has pipe connections, as shown at 16, 17, 18, and 19, the pipe 16 connecting with the cylinder 20 and the safetybrake, the pipe 17 with the auxiliary or starting cylinder 21, and the pipes 18 and 19 connecting with the mechanism to stop or start the motor, as presently described. When the valve is turned to start the car either up or down, the pipes 16 and 17 are always opened, and one of the pipes 18 or 19 is opened, as desired and as presently explained. After the Thesystem has been charged with air under pressure, the air must be exhausted from the several pipes before a new operation, and to this end the valve 12 is provided with ports 22, adapted when the valve is turned to stop the car to register with openings 23 in the easing of the valve, and thus accomplish the desired result. The controller-lever 11 is provided also with arms 11 and 11 which are adapted to extend through the wall of the cage and into the path of abutments 11, near the top and bottom of the shaft, so that if by accident the car goes up or down too far one of the arms 11 or 11 will strike one of the aforesaid abutments and turn the controller, so as to stop the car-that is, it will turn the valve 12 sufficiently to shut off the air-pressure. The arms 11 and 11 are offset-that is, are in difierent vertical planesso that the arm 11 will pass the lower abutment 11 without striking it and the arm 11' will pass the upper abutment 11 without striking; otherwise the second arm striking an abutment would turn the valve back to its original position.

The pipes 18 and 19 are flexible pipes hanging in the elevator-well, and they connect with Y ton-rod 26, which connects with the rod 27,

operating the reversing mechanism 28, which may be any usual device and which, as shown, represents a conventional pole-changer. The pole-changer is connected with leading-in wires A and B andalso by wires a and b with an electric motor (J, the circuit including a rheostat 28. Opening from the cylinder 24 is a pipe 29, which connects by a branch pipe 30 with a cylinder 31, in which is a piston 32, having a piston-rod 33, and around this is coiled a spring 34, operating between a support 35 and-an abutment 36 on the piston-rod and adapted to move the piston 32 against its air-pressure. A cross-head 37 on the pistonrod 33 has one end connected by a rod 38 with a second rod 39, which is in turn connected to the operating-lever 28 on the rheostat 28. The opposite end of the cross-head 37 connects, by means of a rod 40, with a cam 41, the inclined surface of which engages a tilting arm 42, which is pivoted, as shown, at 43 and connected to the valve-stem 44 of a valve 45, which moves in a casing 46, connected with the pipe 29, and the casing is also connected by a pipe 47 with the main high-pressure airchamber 48. The valve 45 is normally closed by a spring 49, arranged between a support and guide 50 for the valve-stem 44 and an abutment 51 on the valve-stem.

The safety-brake mechanism is shown in detail in Fig. 2, and this structure is carried in any convenient place on the bottom of the car 10. In the cylinder is a piston 52, having a piston-rod 53, and the latter is pivoted to a lever 54, which is fulcruined or pivoted, as at 55, and has a pair of brake-rods 56 and 57 pivoted to it on opposite sides of its fulcrum. Each rod 57 connects to a flat brake-shoe 58, and each rod 56 is pivoted to a generally rectangular shoe 59, which has bearing surfaces or parts 60, adapted to grip the T-rail 61, forming the'guide on each side of the elevator-well. This guide is most conveniently made up by securely bolting angle-irons to opposite sides of the ordinary I-rail 62 and using the ordinary precautions of having the rails breakjoints at the ends of the sections. Stiff springs 63 are arranged between the backs of the shoes 58 and 59, and it will be seen that the tendency when the brake is applied is to cause the shoe 58 to press against one side of the T-rail, while the bearing parts 60 grip opposite sides thereof, and so a big bearing-surface is provided and a double grip effected which will hold in spite of any ordinary accumulations on the. guide-rail. The detail construction of the T-rail can be departed from without affecting the principle of the invention; and the main object is to get a guide-rail having at least three bearing-surfaces, so as to get greater friction than on ordinary rails, and, besides, this arrangement makes it impossible for the car to spread or get off the track. I claim in detail this structure of brake as being novel and powerful; but obviously difierent devices can be used for working the brake, and instead of using the springs 63 to apply the brake and the airpressure to release it the arrangement can of course be reversed.

The operation is as follows: We will suppose that the pipe 18 is used for starting the motor, so as to carry car upward, and the pipe 19 for the reverse movement. By' turning the controller-lever 11, so as to open the pipes 16, 17, and 18, the air passes from the tank 21 through the pipe 17 and through the pipes 16 and 18. The air which goes through the pipe 16 strikes the piston 52 and moves it against the tension of the springs 63, so as to release the safetybrake. The air going through the pipe 18 pushes over the piston 25, so as to actuate the pole-changer 28 in a way to start the lever in a desired direction, and as this takes place the piston moves over, so that the air passing through the pipes 29 and 30 moves the piston 32, so as to actuate the cross-head 37 and rods 38 and 40, thus moving the rheostat-lever 28 and turning on the current to the motor 0. At the same time the cam 41 and arm 42 act to pull down the valve 45 against the tension of the spring 49 and the main air-supply in the reservoir 48 is turned into the system and the auxiliary tank 21 filled, so as to be ready for a new operation. When the controller-lever 11 is turned to a neutral position, the air exhausts through the ports 22, as already described, the pipe 17 is closed, and the valve 45 follows up the air as it is exhausted and closes the reservoir 48.

It will thus be seen that I provide a very simple and perfect means of operating the elevator and that the whole system is worked automatically from the controller 11 12.

I have shown the complete system in order that it may be thoroughly understood; but in this application I claim specifically the con struction of the guide-rails and the brake which works in connection with said rails.

Having thus fully described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- 1. In an elevator system,the guide-rails each comprising a supporting-plate arranged with one of its edges toward the center of the shaft, I

and angle-irons arranged on said inner edge of the su pporting-plate and forming therewith a fiat inner surface.

2. In an elevator system,the guide-rails each comprising a flat supporting-plate arranged to be fastened to the wall of a shaft, its inner edge projecting toward the center of the shaft, and separate angle-irons secured on both sides of the supporting-plate and arranged to form H. E. OooPER, ERROLL M. AUGUR. 

